Air barrier

ABSTRACT

A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. An air barrier arrangement having a plurality of moveable barriers separates the article storage compartment from an article extracting device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/505,830 filed Aug. 26, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,159,410, which is aUS national phase of PCT/US03/06051 filed Feb. 26, 2003, whichapplication claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.60/360,128 filed Feb. 26, 2002, each of these applications beingentitled “Thermal Barrier For A Refrigerated Compartment In A VendingMachine”. The entire disclosure of each this prior patent application isincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus forproviding an air barrier for an article storage area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitutepart of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments and detailsof the invention, and, together with the general description given aboveand the detailed description given below, serve to explain the featuresof the invention.

FIG. 1 is a side section view which illustrates a prior art vendingmachine useful for illustrating an environment for the presentinvention. The vending machine includes a refrigerated article storagecompartment, and has a displaceable thermal separating door forseparating the open end of a refrigerated compartment from the remainderof the interior of the vending machine.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view a thermal barrier arrangement nearthe top of an article storage compartment of the type shown in FIG. 1,the barrier arrangement being constructed in accordance with theprinciples of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of athermal barrier arrangement near the top of a storage compartment,constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the FIG. 3 arrangement.

FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C illustrate an alternative embodiment useful forattaching the thermal separating flaps of the present invention to thetop of an article storage compartment.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a further alternative embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 7 illustrates an even further alternative embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art vending machine 10, such as known byprior U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139 (incorporated herein by reference), usefulfor illustrating one environment useful for the present invention.Machine 10 has an outer housing 11 and hinged front door 9 for forming acabinet for the vending machine. Housing 11 includes therein arefrigerated insulated compartment 12 for storing articles to be vended.In one embodiment, refrigerated compartment 12 has associated therewitha refrigeration unit 16 and a displaceable thermal separating door 14positioned over an opening 15 in one side, in this case the topside, ofcompartment 12. Door 14 provides a thermal separation at the opening 15between the remainder of the interior of the vending machine and theinterior of compartment 12. The above-noted U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139shows and describes several different embodiments for door 14, includinga single-piece hinged door which makes a vertical arcuate motion duringopening/closing, as well as several “sliding” door designs. It is alsonoted that an “air curtain” can also form a thermal barrier thatfunctions as a door, as well as merely having an air gap overcompartment 12, which in some situations may be sufficient for effectiveoperation of the vending machine, since cold air sinks, and thereforetends to stay within compartment 12 when left undisturbed. Compartment12 includes therein open-topped subdivided sections 72 adapted forstoring articles 74, such as ice cream or other frozen or refrigeratedfoods in a cooled environment until they are selected to be dispensed bya user of vending machine 10. A plurality of divider walls 76 arepositioned inside compartment 12 so as to form the subdivided sections72.

It is noted that compartment 12 may be of the “static” type, which hasthe evaporator coils distributed along and in thermal contact with theinside walls which form the main interior volume of compartment 12, andthe condenser coils thermally insulated from the evaporator coils anddistributed along and in thermal contact with the walls which form theoutside perimeter of storage compartment 12. With this type of freezer,no fans are required for the refrigeration system since the coolingeffect of the evaporator coils is directly radiated to the interior ofcompartment 12, and the heat generated by the refrigeration system isdirectly radiated by the outside walls of compartment 12 to the externalenvironment. Such chest freezers are commonly available from manysources. Other techniques for developing a cooled environment incompartment 12 could just as easily be used with the present invention,such as what is conventionally known as a forced air system, having aseparate refrigeration unit for developing cooled air, which cooled airis then directed to the interior of compartment 12.

In operation, after a user of the vending machine has inserted theproper payment and made a valid selection of an item stored in thevending machine, a control mechanism 40 of machine 10, of conventionaldesign, causes an article pickup carriage 20 having a suction hose 22and pickup head 52 hanging therefrom, to be laterally positioned overthe section 72 which stores at least one of the selected articles. Inthe illustrated embodiment, movement of carriage 20 causes door 14 tobecome displaced, via cable 68 and rollers 70, so as to egress ofarticle pickup head 52. The control mechanism 40 then causes a motor incarriage 20 to operate so that the article pickup head 52 controllablyenters the selected compartment 72, suction generated by a blower motor7 is conducted thereto via hose 22 (the full length of hose forconnection to blower motor 7 is not shown in this Figure, but as one ofordinary skill in this art would realize, is required), and an article74 thereby becomes secured to the article pickup head 52. The motor incarriage 20 is operated again, this time in a reverse direction, so asto extract article pickup head 52, and the selected article, fromcompartment 72, and then deposit the selected article 74 in a customerretrieval area 16 by removing the suction force from pickup head 52 whenthe pickup head 52 is in positioned over the open top of customerretrieval area 16. A customer access door 18 allows the user access toretrieve the dispensed article.

In view of the public availability of my above-noted patent, and thewidely known construction and operation of vending machines of thistype, no further description of how to make and use a vending machine ofthe type described so far, is considered necessary.

With such a device, during normal machine operation, the thermalbarriers between the cooled areas and ambient areas located inside ofhousing 11, in this case doors 14 and 18, are opened and closed manytimes, thereby repeatedly exposing warm air from housing 11 to thecooled air in compartment 12. Since cold air is heavier than warm air,when the door 14 is opened, the colder air tends to stay in the storagecompartments 72, however, typically there is some unwanted mixing of theambient air with the refrigerated air at the top of the storagecompartments 72, at least partially due to air currents caused movementsof the picker head, the opening and closing of door 14 and other partsof machine 10, thereby introducing unwanted heat into the freezer. Atleast some of this unwanted hot air was generated by the compressor andcondenser as described above.

It is one object of the present invention reduce this unwanted mixing ofhot air in compartment 12.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, where adisplaceable thermal barrier is provided at the dispensing end, i.e.,open top, of one or more of the refrigerated article storagecompartments 72. It is noted that these individualized displaceablethermal barriers could be useful in addition to the thermal barrierfunction provided by a displaceable thermal barrier which is common tothe compartments 72, such as the door 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the displaceable barrier comprises a pair of opposedflaps 4 and 6. Each flap has one long edge which is attached to anopposite long side of a storage compartment 72 via folded tab portions8, and a free end which abuts the free end of an opposed flap in analigned manner, as shown. The cross-sectional area of the folded flaps 4and 6 are adjusted to be slightly less than the cross-sectional area ofthe opening at the top of storage compartment 72, so that flaps 4 and 6are able to be freely displaced in a direction into and out ofcompartment 72. The folded tab portions 8 can be attached to the outsidewalls of the top opposed ends of compartment 72 using conventionaladhesive techniques, or other techniques well known to those of ordinaryskill in this technology, such as sonic welding in the event that thecomponents are thermo-plastic, etc. It is also noted that these tabs canbe formed integrally with the walls of the compartments 72.

In a modification of this embodiment of the invention, a single flap 4′,enlarged as compared to the flap 4 shown in FIG. 2 so as to haveapproximately the same cross-sectional area as the combined flaps 4 and6, and thereby substantially provide by itself a thermal barrier overthe open end of a storage compartment 72, could be used in place of thepair of flaps 4 and 6. In this embodiment, the material used to formflap 4′ may be different from that used for flaps 4 or 6, since flap 4′may need to have need to have a bit more rigidity so as to effectivelyspan the end opening of compartment 72.

In operation, when a thermal separating door, such as door 14 shown inFIG. 1 is displaced, thereby exposing the open ends of the articlestorage compartments to the ambient environment, the opposed flaps 4 and6 effectively “seal off” the open ends of the storage compartments fromthe ambient environment, thereby substantially preventing air currents,which are typically warmer than the air inside the compartments 72, fromexposing the products near the top of the article storage compartment tothe ambient environment. Furthermore, an article pickup head, such aspickup head 52 shown in FIG. 1 can still have access to the interior ofstorage compartment 72 since the flaps 4 and 6 can be easily deflectedinto the storage compartment as the pickup head is lowered, and can beeasily deflected outwardly from the compartment 72 as the pickup headwith the selected article secured thereto is raised from inside thecompartment.

It is noted that flaps 4 and 6 could be constructed of a thin andflexible material in order that the above-noted functions can be easilyprovided. Such materials may comprise a plastic, silicon or even aninsulating foam sheet material having a thickness, in a typicalapplication, of approximately 0.5 to 0.001 inches, depending upon theflexibility of the material used to make the flaps. In accordance withone aspect of the invention, the flaps can be manufactured of a materialthat is so flexible that they offer substantially no resistance to thepassage of the article pickup head 52 therethrough, (especially ifserrations are provided therein, as to be described more fully inconjunction with FIGS. 3 and 4) on its way into a compartment 72 to geta selected article 74, nor have any tendency to dislodge a selectedarticle 74 as the article pickup head 52 is removed from the compartment72. Yet, the flaps are substantial enough so that when they are notphysically disturbed, they remain in place over the open end of thecooled article storage compartments 72 and substantially prevent themixing/introduction of ambient air into the compartments. It is notedthat ideally, the center of the flap openings are located over thecenter of the articles that are stored in compartments 72.

Thus, one aspect of the invention is to provide at least onedisplaceable thermal separator which is individual to an open end of aplurality of the refrigerated storage compartments in an article storagearea, which individual displaceable thermal separator may be in additionto a thermal separator function which is in common with the plurality ofrefrigerated storage compartments, such as provided by door 14. Thiswill allow access to selected articles in given sub-portions of thearticle storage compartments when the common thermal separator, if oneis used, is displaced, without exposing the remainder of therefrigerated storage compartments in the article storage area to theambient environment. Additionally, such an arrangement minimizes egressof warm air into the selected sub portion of the article storage areabefore and after the article pickup head 52 passes therethrough.

It is noted that the thermal separator which is common to the pluralityof article storage compartments, can be provided by the displaceabledoor shown by 14 in FIG. 1, but in alternative embodiments, the commonthermal separator can be provided by other types/shapes of doors, suchas those shown in my forenoted U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139, such as ahorizontal lid hinged at the rear of compartment 12. In an even furtheralternative embodiment, the common thermal separator can comprise alaminar flow of air, commonly called an air curtain. Using an aircurtain as the common thermal separator, allows quick and easydisplacement of the common thermal separator by the pickup head 52,i.e., by merely piercing, and thus displacing, the laminar flow. Cooledair is preferably used to form the curtain in order to minimize warmingof the contents of compartment 12 by displaced air from the laminarflow.

It is noted that the bins 72 could be individually removable fromcompartment 12, and in fact compartment 12 could be wholly or partiallyremovable from inside of housing 11 in order to facilitate reloading ofthe compartments 72 will articles to be vended.

Many variations of this invention are possible, both in the manner offorming/attaching the individual displaceable thermal separators overthe openings of the article storage compartments 72, as well as thedimensioning, structure, shape and choice of materials for the thermalseparators.

For example, FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment where the flaps are formedintegrally with the sidewalls. For example, the side walls may becomprised of a corrugated sheet of plastic or paperboard, and the flapsections can be comprised of a compressed portion of the same material.Additionally, in this illustrated example the flap portions 10 and 12are dimensioned so as to overlap each other, and to overlap the outercross-sectional area of the opening at the top of storage compartment72.

Alternatively, the opposed ends of flaps 10 and 12 shown in FIG. 3 maynot overlap each other, and instead abut each other, as shown in FIG. 2,if the hinge portion of the flaps (like portions 8 of FIG. 2), aresubstantial enough to nominally hold the flaps in the horizontalposition.

Irrespective of weather flaps 10 and 12 overlap each other or not, flaps10 and 12 will rest upon the top-facing outer edges 13 that define theopen top end of compartment 72 and therefore not be displaceable towardsthe interior of the storage compartment, yet be freely displaceable in adirection extending outwardly from the storage compartment. This type ofconstruction allows flaps 10 and 12 to be made of a more substantialmaterial, which may provide a benefit in certain environments and/orapplications. In order to allow pickup head 52 free access into and outof the storage compartments 72 to retrieve articles from therein, flaps10 and 12 can include serrations so as to form sub-flaps 14, 16, 18 and20 which are susceptible to bi-directional displacement due to hingingaction provided by the material which forms the rear of each flap.

In an alternative embodiment, such as shown in FIG. 4, additionalserrations could be included and the shape of the serrations narrowed,so that the bidirectional flaps formed by the serrations extend acrosssubstantially the entire portion of flaps 10 and 12, as shown by thedashed lines. This embodiment allows a greater tolerance for thepositioning of pickup head 52 over the opening in each compartment 72,as well as an improved flexibility for the bi-directional displacementof the serrated flaps.

In operation, certain ones of the bi-directional flaps shown in FIG. 3or FIG. 4 would deflect upon impact of an article pickup head 52 whichis opposed thereto, so as to allow the article pickup head 52 to enterthe storage compartment, while the remainder of the flaps are notdeflected. Once inside the compartment 72, article pickup head 52 willbecome secured to a selected one of articles 74 due to the suction forceprovided thereto, and article pickup head 52 will then move in adirection so as to extract the article 74 from the storage compartment72. As the article pickup head 52 is extracted, the flaps 10 and 12 willfreely deflect/become displaced in a direction outwardly from thestorage compartment, and thereby provide no impediment to an easyextraction of the pickup head 52 with article 74 attached thereto. Afterthe pickup head 52 and secured article have been fully extracted, theflaps 10 and 12 are pre-biased so as to return to their normally closedposition over the open top of the storage compartment 72, therebyquickly and effectively preventing unwanted air currents from enteringthat storage compartment 72. Additionally, the flaps 10 and 12positioned over the open tops of the other ones of compartments 72 instorage area 12 are not displaced, and these flaps also are useful forpreventing the introduction of ambient air into these other compartments72. Thereafter, a common door 14, if one is used, would be positionedover the top of compartment 12, for providing even further thermalisolation for the refrigerated articles stored therein.

In a further alternative embodiment of the invention, the thermalseparating flaps of the invention can be provided redundantly, so as topossibly further improve the thermal separation of the stored articlesfrom the ambient environment. Use of redundant flaps is illustrated inFIG. 2, via dashed lines, which show a second set of flaps 4″ and 6″which are similar in structure and function to flaps 4 and 6, and whichalso have tab portions 8″ useful for attaching the set of redundantflaps 4″ and 6″ to the inside walls of compartment 72. The gap betweenthe upper and lower set of flaps defines an air space which improves thethermal separation function provided to the articles stored inside thecompartment, as compared to the thermal separation function provided byonly one set of flaps. The vertical spacing between each set of flapscould be such that the inward deflection of the upper set will notcontact the upper side of the lower set (i.e., each set will operateindependently and the upper set can substantially closed before thelower set is opened. Alternatively, the sets can be positionedrelatively close to one another so that they operate in unison, yetstill advantageously define a thermally separating air gap therebetween.It is noted that in an even further alternative embodiment, a singlelarge redundant flap, such as one large flap redundant to flap 4 of FIG.2, can be used. In this regard, the function of redundant flaps whichdefine an air gap therebetween can also be provided by using a singleset of flaps 4 and 6 wherein each of the flaps is comprised of amulti-layered material so as to form an air gap therebetween, such as a“bubble-wrap” type of material.

FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C illustrate one of many alternative techniques forpositioning thermal separating flaps over the open end of the storagecompartments, and basically comprises providing at the hinge/attachingedge of the flaps a series of teeth dimensioned for insertion into theinterstitial spaces formed by the longitudinal corrugations in the sidewall material which comprises the storage compartment 72. Thisalternative embodiment for attaching the flaps is shown in detail inFIGS. 5B and 5C.

While the present invention has been disclosed with reference to certainembodiments, numerous modifications, alterations and changes to thedescribed embodiments are possible without departing from the sphere andscope of the present invention, as defined above, and claims whichfollow at the end of this description.

For example, it is noted that the invention described herein is notlimited to any specific type of article retrieving device (such as theillustrated pickup head 52). For example, it may be desirable for therobotic positioning mechanism to include a rotary device (R, θ) of thetype including an I beam of fixed length (or telescopic sections), forestablishing an “R” movement for pickup head 52, and where pivoting ofthe I beam establishes a “θ” movement. Alternatively, in otherenvironments for the invention, the pickup head positioning mechanismmay include an articulated arm or scissor system, or use a totallydifferent dispensing technique, such a the more conventional spiral wiredispenser mechanism. Other types of suitable pickup devices include amechanical claw or scoop, a magnetic attracting device, a portablesuction generator, etc.

Furthermore, other types of storage compartments are usable in theenvironment of the present invention, such as article storagecompartments including horizontally oriented stacks of stored articles,wherein the storage area has one or more vertically oriented openings atthe dispensing end thereof. All that is required of thestorage/dispensing arrangement is that the selected article requirespassage through the dispensing end of the article storage compartment.

Even furthermore, it is noted that compartment 12 can be mechanicallymounted and electrically connected within housing 11 so as to be atleast partially removable therefrom, such as by the use of slidingtracks mounted between a bottom portion of compartment 12 and a floorportion of housing 11, so as to assist repositioning of compartment 12to be at least partially outside of housing 11, thereby facilitatingaccess to the interior of compartment 12 during re-loading ofcompartment 12 with fresh articles to be vended. If necessary, anyelectrical connection to compartment 12 required for operating thecooling equipment associated therewith, could be selectivelydisconnectable, so as to facilitate the repositioning of compartment 12.

In a still further alternative embodiment of the invention shown by thetop and side views of FIGS. 6A and 6B, the individual article storagecompartments 72 can be constructed as shown by PCT patent applicationpublication WO 02/01525 (which designates the US, and has its entiretext incorporated herein by reference), so as to include articlesupporting tabs 9. The sidewalls of compartment 72 has pairs of opposedslot openings therein, and the flexible tabs 9 are attached to the outerwall of compartment 72 so that a portion of each tab 9 intrudes into theinterior space of the compartment by passing through the slot. Tabs 9are biased upward so as to form flexible load-bearing supports forarticles stored in the compartment so that the full weight of thosearticles in the upper portion of the compartment does not rest on thelower articles, yet, when the pickup head 52 is removing a selectedarticle towards the end opening in the compartment, the tabs simply andeasily fold up and away from the articles, and thereby providenegligible resistance to article extraction.

With this arrangement, the thermal separating flaps of the presentinvention can be attached, for example by using an adhesive, to a set oftabs 9, or to compartment walls positioned near the top of thecompartment, such as shown by flaps 4 and 6 in the top view of FIG. 6 a.

FIG. 7 shows a top cross-sectional view of the storage area of a vendingmachine constructed in accordance with the principles of the invention,for illustrating an even further alternative embodiment of theinvention, wherein a single sheet member 70 as shown by dashed lines,covers the open dispensing-ends of a plurality of the storagecompartments 72. The outer edges of sheet 70 can be attached to theoutside perimeter walls of the group of compartments 72, or to the topopening rim of freezer compartment 12, while the interior of sheet 70can have a plurality of “H” shaped cuts or slits 78 formed therein whichare aligned with the open dispensing-end of each compartment 72. Each ofthe “H” shaped cuts or slits 78 effectively forms a pair of flaps overthe open end of each compartment 72, which function and provide theadvantages substantially as described above for the flaps shown in FIGS.2-4. Alternately, flaps with shapes other than H could be used in sheet70, such as the designs noted the prior Figures. Furthermore, in theevent that there is a gap between the compartments 72 and the inside ofcompartment 12, it is noted that sheet 70 can act to prevent air andhumidity from entering into the gap. This can help reduce air exchangeand frost build up on the walls of freezer compartment 12.

As noted above, while the present invention has been disclosed withreference to certain embodiments, numerous modifications, alterationsand changes to the described embodiments are possible without departingfrom the sphere and scope of the present invention. For example,although a sliding door 14 is shown for covering opening 15, a differenttype of door, or even no door at all, may be required to achieve theadvantageous of the invention. Furthermore, the flaps can be formedintegrally with a cap arrangement which can be placed over individual orgroups of the compartments 72. Alternately, the flaps can be made of amore rigid material and utilize a more traditional mechanical mechanism,such as a hinge. Accordingly, it is intended that the present inventionnot be limited to the described embodiments, but that it has the fullscope defined by the above language and the claims which follow, as wellas equivalents thereof.

1. An article retrieving apparatus comprising, a housing, an articlestorage area inside the housing for storing a plurality of articlestherein; an article extracting device having a grasping end for enteringthe article storage area and retrieving an article therefrom; and aplurality of movable barriers positioned near the article storage area,each barrier having a closed position and an open position, wherein whena moveable barrier is moved to the closed position, the barrierdecreases the potential for air to move into or out of the articlestorage area, and when a moveable barrier is moved to the open positionthere is an increased potential for air to move into or out of thearticle storage area as compared to when the moveable barrier is in theclosed position; and wherein in order for the article extracting deviceto retrieve an article, the grasping end of the article extractingdevice must initiate a direct physical contact with at least one of saidplurality of moveable barriers so as to deflect a portion of said atleast one barrier toward said article storage area and thereby create anopening through which said grasping end of the article extracting devicemust pass to retrieve an article.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinsaid opening is created by the combined movement of a plurality of saidat least one moveable barriers to said open position.
 3. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein movement of the article extracting device causes atleast one of said plurality of moveable barriers to move into the openposition.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said movement of thearticle extracting device causes a plurality of said moveable barriersto move into the open position.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein thearticle extracting device has at least one dimension which determines aminimum size of an opening through which the article extracting devicecould potentially pass through, and wherein movement of the articleextracting device into the storage area causes a minimum number of saidplurality of moveable barriers to move to their respective openpositions, in order to at least allow the article extracting device toenter into the storage area.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinmovement of the article extracting device causes at least one of saidplurality of moveable barriers to move into the closed position.
 7. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein said plurality of moveable barriers aremade of a flexible material.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein theplurality of moveable barriers are formed in a single sheet of flexiblematerial.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the plurality of moveablebarriers comprise a plurality of pairs of opposed flaps, with abuttingfree ends of the opposed flaps being substantially aligned with a centerposition of an article stored in the article storage compartmentpositioned thereunder.
 10. The apparatus of claims 9, wherein theplurality of flaps of the sheet-like member are uniformly shaped anduniformly distributed in the sheet-like member.
 11. The apparatus ofclaims 9 wherein the plurality of flaps of the sheet-like member areformed integrally with the sheet-like member.
 12. The apparatus of claim9, wherein each flap of said plurality of pairs of opposed flaps has: aperimeter edge which forms a hinge that is substantially aligned with aperimeter edge of a given article stored in the article storagecompartment positioned thereunder, and a free edge of the flap whichabuts the free edge of an opposed flap, the opposed flap also having aperimeter edge which forms a hinge, which hinge is in general alignmentwith a second perimeter edge of said given article stored in the articlestorage compartment positioned thereunder, which second perimeter edgeis opposed to the first mentioned perimeter edge.
 13. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein said article storage area includes structure forcausing the articles stored therein to be stored in a compartmentalizedmanner.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said structure comprisesa plurality of containers positioned inside the article storage area.15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said structure comprises aplurality of dividers positioned inside the article storage area. 16.The apparatus of claim 14, wherein each of said containers comprises abox.
 17. An article retrieving apparatus comprising, a housing, anarticle storage area inside the housing for storing a plurality ofarticles therein; an article extracting device having a grasping end forentering the article storage area and retrieving an article therefrom;and a plurality of movable barriers positioned near the article storagearea, each barrier having a closed position and an open position,wherein when a moveable barrier is moved to the closed position, themoveable barrier decreases the potential for air to move into or out ofthe article storage area, and when a moveable barrier is moved to theopen position there is an increased potential for air to move into orout of the article storage area as compared to when the moveable barrieris in the closed position; and wherein in order for the articleextracting device to retrieve an article, a portion of the articleextracting device near the grasping end of the article extracting devicemust initiate a direct physical contact with at least one of theplurality of said moveable barriers, so as to push a portion of said atleast one barrier so that it is deflected in toward the article storagearea and into the open position by the action of said grasping end ofthe article extracting device passing into the article storage area. 18.The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said movement of the articleextracting device causes a plurality of said moveable barriers to moveinto the open position.
 19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein thearticle extracting device and an article from the article storage areawhich is grasped thereto has at least one dimension which determines aminimum size of an opening through which the article extracting deviceand the article grasped thereto could potentially pass through, andwherein movement of the article extracting device and the articlegrasped thereto out from the storage area causes a minimum number ofsaid plurality of moveable barriers to move to their respective openpositions, in order to at least allow the article extracting device andthe article grasped thereto to exit out of the storage area.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 17, wherein said plurality of moveable barriers aremade of a flexible material.
 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein theplurality of moveable barriers are formed in a single sheet of flexiblematerial.
 22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said opening is createdby the combined movement of a plurality of said moveable barriers tosaid open position.
 23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said articlestorage area includes structure for causing the articles stored thereinto be stored in a compartmentalized manner.
 24. The apparatus of claim23, wherein said structure comprises a plurality of containerspositioned inside the article storage area.
 25. The apparatus of claim23, wherein said structure comprises a plurality of dividers positionedinside the article storage area.
 26. The apparatus of claim 24, whereineach of said containers comprises a box.
 27. An article retrievingapparatus comprising, a housing, an article storage area inside thehousing for storing a plurality of articles therein; an articleextracting device having a grasping end for entering the article storagearea and retrieving an article therefrom; and a plurality of flexiblemovable barriers positioned near the article storage area, each barrierbeing flexible so as to be able to move from a closed position and anopen position, wherein when a moveable barrier is flexed so as to bemoved to the closed position, the barrier decreases the potential forair to move into or out of the article storage area, and when a moveablebarrier is flexed so as to be moved to the open position there is anincreased potential for air to move into or out of the article storagearea as compared to when the moveable barrier is in the closed position;and wherein in order for the article extracting device to retrieve anarticle, the grasping end of the article extracting device passes intothe article storage area through an opening which is created when aportion of at least one of said plurality of moveable barriers isdeflected in toward the article storage area by a direct physicalcontact which is initialed by said article extracting device, so as tobe moved into the said open position.
 28. The apparatus of claim 27,wherein said at least one of said plurality of moveable barriers isdeflected so as to be moved into the said open position by directphysical contact between the grasping end of said article extractingdevice and said at least one flexible moveable barrier.